Book: “Daily Self-Worth Journal for Women: A 60-Day Guide to Self-Improvement, Kris Jobson, Books Go Social, 2022
Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
I think it is important to start off with who Kris Jobson is. On LinkedIn, he is described as, “Creator, Artistic Director, Director, Choreographer, Producer, Writer, Dancer, Model, Actor, and Speaker.” He is definitely a creative whom I can relate to. I understand creatives because we tend to go inwards to find our source of inspiration. It is important to figure out who you are in order to expose yourself to the outside world in creativity.
I think it is important to note, as he does, that this is not to be used as medical treatment. There are people qualified to help you with trauma and many other issues or problem areas of concern.
I am reviewing both journal books for men and women because other than the cover, the orientation for both books are the same.
I feel as if much of this work is based on Kris’s internal dialogue based on counselling sessions. This is purely conjecture but his knowledge seems to have come from somewhere or perhaps years of studying and researching.
The areas he covers from self-love, self-confidence, to letting go and balance are all important key areas of life. I found the book repetitive because you were doing similar exercises for the different areas from writing out certain phrases, to breathing exercises, repeating affirmations and going inwards. I felt as if these would be assignments that a counsellor would give you after each session.
For a journal, there are some good areas to address individually and in a quiet place and space. I think you have to work the program like AA, NA, or OA to get to the root of the problems.
Having reviewed the book, I give the books both 3.5 out of 5.0 for his concern in wanting to help people and providing a framework for reflection. If I were the publisher, I would have reoriented the journal to cover more areas of concern and with an index or appendix that people could go to for the repetitive sections like the personal declaration sections and other continuing sections.
You may also follow Kris Jobson on YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. He has his own website under his name.
Book: “Lose Weight Get Toned!, 15 Minutes Daily Strength Training for Slim & Tightened Body”, Jannah Adams, Books Go Social, 2022
Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
I would like to start off by talking about the author, Jannah Adams and her credentials. She is a dietitian and fitness educator. She has written a book about strength training. She goes into what it is and how it differs from other forms of exercise. She reviews the benefits of strength training for your body.
Jannah reviews some of the safety aspects as the focus of this book are newbies to weightlifting or strength lifting. She distinguishes between the two areas, but personally, I see them as being the one and the same thing. I suppose it depends on what you are focussing on when initially exercising with weights.
The book does show some pictures of the various lifts. I, however, do have to critique this area because, if it were my book, I would have hired a photographer to do actual poses from initial, middle and final movements instead of picking pictures off of the internet.
Finally, she talks about what to eat while strength training.
A review of Jannah’s profile says she has helped many people with strength training to lose weight and particularly women.
Overall, I found the book a good start for someone who does not know their way around a gym. Aside from me preferring better photos, I found it disjointed from a writing point of view. I felt as if snippets of information were taken from various internet sources and placed together. I felt from a writing point of view that she tried to be all inclusive but, in my opinion, it felt disjointed and not fluid.
I give the book a 3.75 out 5.0 review for Jannah’s effort to bring this information to the forefront.
Either there are a few people with Jannah Adam’s name or there is no real cohesive social media presence on the internet. I found a few people with her name but I could not confidently confirm it was the same person.
I found that Amazon had the best information on her and her background. Jannah has also seemingly written a couple of other books along this similar theme that you may want to check out.
Book: “Daily Self-Worth Journal for Men: A 60-Day Guide to Self-Improvement, Kris Jobson, Books Go Social, 2022
Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
I think it is important to start off with who Kris Jobson is. On LinkedIn, he is described as, “Creator, Artistic Director, Director, Choreographer, Producer, Writer, Dancer, Model, Actor, and Speaker.” He is definitely a creative whom I can relate to. I understand creatives because we tend to go inwards to find our source of inspiration. It is important to figure out who you are in order to expose yourself to the outside world in creativity.
I think it is important to note, as he does, that this is not to be used as medical treatment. There are people qualified to help you with trauma and many other issues or problem areas of concern.
I am reviewing both journal books for men and women because other than the cover, the orientation for both books are the same.
I feel as if much of this work is based on Kris’s internal dialogue based on counselling sessions. This is purely conjecture but his knowledge seems to have come from somewhere or perhaps years of studying and researching.
The areas he covers from self-love, self-confidence, to letting go and balance are all important key areas of life. I found the book repetitive because you were doing similar exercises for the different areas from writing out certain phrases, to breathing exercises, repeating affirmations and going inwards. I felt as if these would be assignments that a counsellor would give you after each session.
For a journal, there are some good areas to address individually and in a quiet place and space. I think you have to work the program like AA, NA, or OA to get to the root of the problems.
Having reviewed the book, I give the books both 3.5 out of 5.0 for his concern in wanting to help people and providing a framework for reflection. If I were the publisher, I would have reoriented the journal to cover more areas of concern and with an index or appendix that people could go to for the repetitive sections like the personal declaration sections and other continuing sections.
You may also follow Kris Jobson on YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. He has his own website under his name.
Book: “The Greatest Manifestation Principle in the World: How Quantum Physics and Spirituality Can Enable You to Manifest Your Best Life,” Carnelian Sage, Think-Outside-the-Book, Inc.,2nd edition, 2022.
Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
This second edition book by Carnelian Sage is worth it. The beginning of the book starts off with praise from various people but then overall, it is a very quick read and is full of very good information spread throughout.
I have found many of the points are based on my years of study into quantum physics, the law of attraction or manifestation and also spirituality. I have actually gleaned much of the knowledge from reviewing good NDEs or Near Death Experiences. Strange as this may sound, people come back from the other side with great insights, knowledge and messages. Once put together, they are a wealth of knowledge and information.
I found myself highlighting many passages in various colours not because the information to me was necessarily new because, I kept on saying, “Yes!”
I won’t give the messages away of the book. I think it is more important to read it and absorb the wonderful knowledge. It is, in many respects a culmination of gathered information over the years.
Based on how I feel on many decades of reviewing spiritual type of books, I give this book a 5 out of 5 and highly recommend it. Just so you know, Carnelian Sage is a pseudonym for her identity and she has written 10 other books along the same genre and vein.
For more book reviews, check out my wordpress website under Mary Mikawoz specifically under the category of Book Reviews.
Book: “Grand Theft Weight Loss – How Stealing Scientific Discoveries Outside The Diet Industry Helps You Lose Weight,” Michael Alvear, BooksGoSocial, 2021
Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
Henry Ford revolutionized the auto but he did so by borrowing from other industries. He looked at sewing machines and watch industries where they used interchangeable parts. He looked at continuous flow processes in flour and in canning industries. “He mimicked assembly line techniques from meat-packing plants and breweries.”
In a similar fashion, Michael Alvear has borrowed ideas, information and developments from other industries that have been around, in some cases for decades, and applied them to the diet industry.
First and foremost, Mr. Alvear says the very most important thing to determine is the right question to any problem. Once you have the question, you can look at the information and process it appropriately. For example, in the billion dollar industry of dieting, the only message seems to be a variety of diets but they all say, “eat less and move more.” If that worked, there would be one diet and it would work for all of us. We would all be skinny or fit but in actuality, it does not work.
Dieting is an illusion that says some foods are good and others are bad. Depending upon the particular diet, it gets confusing because they contradict each other from pro-protein to anti-carbohydrate and anti-fat diets.
Research shows that the harder you try to lose weight, the harder the body tries to fight back. Further research shows that your metabolism can slow by 15% which explains the constant lose weight quickly and then gain it back even though you are sticking to a diet.
Michael Alvear uses a number of techniques from other industries to help a person lose weight. I know a lot of people with eating disorders around the issue of food intake so although a lot of the techniques are interesting, I wonder if they will work.
We can control what we put in our mouth but what our body does in the process of metabolizing it is another issue. We have genetics and we have the environment. How much does each serve to affect us?
There are bigger issues involved. Why can’t we just accept ourselves as we are and believe in HAES which stands for “Health at Every Size.” When will society just accept that people come in different heights, weights, shapes, colours and features. We would never expect a Chihuahua or Poodle to act and look like a Great Dane or a Husky and yet when it comes to people, we need to somehow fit some magical mould of what it means to be “perfect” including people going to extremes with getting surgeries and starving themselves to death.
I give this book a 4 out of 5 for stepping out of the diet industry box in an effort to bring in some other angles to look at.
Book: “Walking Through This: Harness the Healing Power of Nature and Travel the Road to Forgiveness” Sara Shulting Kranz, Harper Horizon, 2020.
Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
I found this book by Sara Shulting Kranz to be interesting. I found that her in-depth knowledge of trauma and PTSD is based on the fact that she has had to deal with it and go through it herself.
She understands more than just an empathetic listener. I won’t repeat her life story other than to say that she has gone through a lot. We all do but that is what is so wonderful about this book is that she gives you steps to deal with the trauma.
Sara gives you written meditations that you can read and then practice. After you are done the guided meditation, she gives you some questions to consider as you take your information gleaned from this process and reflect upon any and all insights. She asks that you write about it.
I find it interesting she mentions a little fact that since 2012, the number of people meditating in this world has tripled. That is significant and shows that there is value in following through with inner work including listening to your intuition.
After learning the six steps, she asks you to forgive yourself, the perpetrator and also the world.
In the meantime, Sara has also implemented a number of practical techniques of walking in nature including retreats through the Grand Canyon or standup paddle boarding on water. From Sara doing her work, she is able to give practical advice and not that just of a psychologist or counsellor who doesn’t have any personal terms of reference and can only reflect back to you what they have heard without any concrete suggestions or relevant life event experiences or tasks to pursue.
I give this book a 4.25 out of 5 for being a useful book that was interesting to read. She is on social media like Instagram and Facebook. She has her own website as well.
Book: “The Self-Love Superpower: The Magical Art of Approving of Yourself (No Matter What),” Tess Whitehurst, Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd., 2021.
Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
Book Available September 8, 2021
I was quite interested in recognizing how self-love could be a superpower simply by approving of myself/yourself. Overall, I found the author to be quite knowledgeable about many spiritual and psychological matters. I found she has incorporated many works from previous authors that I have read and whose books I have previously reviewed. It was nice to see these concepts being congealed in such a well-developed way.
I believe the author to be quite young as her references indicate someone of a younger age. This is not a problem other than many of the cultural and societal references she discussed were not in my sphere of knowledge or influence. So, for that reason, I would recommend this book for younger or middle-aged people.
One of the best insights or lines she has is, “I am choosing to need nothing, expect nothing, and even be nothing. And so I am open to everything.” She goes on to say how liberating it is to have this kind of thought. This is in line with Buddhist philosophy of non-attachment.
Overall, she does come up with some very good ideas but again, they are ones I have read in many other books but it is nice to see it collated here as an inclusive manner.
Tess also goes over chakras which for me was just a review. It seems most books I pick up nowadays include something about the chakra system. If you are new to this, then definitely read this.
Overall, I would give this book a 4 out of 5 based on the attempt to have a cohesive nature of spiritual philosophies and ideas in one book.
Book: “Press Here! Sensual Massage for Beginners: Your Guide to Pleasure and Intimacy,” Sydney Price, Quarto Publishing Group – Fair Winds, 2021.
Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
Book Available July 27, 2021
For once, I am going to do a short review of a book. I would rather have this book speak for itself. The title clearly gives the subject-matter away – “Press Here! Sensual Massage for Beginners: Your Guide to Pleasure and Intimacy.”
It is a good first step in those who are either young beginners or who are older and may have had hang-ups from religious doctrine and societal upbringing. It is non-gender specific so many variations of massage before love-making can be learned and practiced to be inclusive of many combinations.
The book has a number of drawn images to explain important body parts.
It also includes a number of flow charts to explain the steps in how to proceed, however, as I was using an e-reader, they were hard to follow because of the restrictions of the page formatting. If you know you may have to go back and forth between pages to follow the arrows, you will understand it a lot easier.
I would recommend this book for people who are willing to explore their sexual experiences.
I give the book a 3.75 out of 5 for attempting this delicate subject. However, I would have appreciated more information in explaining the actual various techniques of massage.
Your Mind Builds Your Body – Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
Book: “Your Mind Builds Your Body: Unlock Your Potential with Biohacking and Strength Training” Roger Snipes, Watkins Publishing, 2021.
Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
Book Available May 11, 2021
First of all, I have to start off by saying I was not the target audience of this book. It is primarily by a man for men. However, as a woman who is interested and has been interested in lifting weights for decades, I thought I would give this book a “Go!”
I had not realized I knew the author and bodybuilder, Roger Snipes, but when I saw his picture, I realized I had. I have seen him and his natural bodybuilding body featured on social media. He has a very nicely proportioned and fit body that is recognizable.
He starts off talking about his past and how he came to be interested in running, sports and being number one in all the things he pursued.
In this book, Roger talks about charting your progress to understand your potential and pretty much everything in between. He speaks a lot about visualizations such as visualizing the muscle you are going to affect with the weights you are lifting so as to get the desired effect. He talks about engaging your brain and not just your physical apparatus.
Roger does go through some physical scientific information Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) to various diets to intermittent fasting and also tracking macros. He reviews the main six parts of the body – legs, chest, back, core, arms, and shoulders.
He seems to use some of Wim Hof’s techniques as he uses cold treatments and does quote him in another part of the book. Roger looks as if he has been training and researching how to improve the body to the max through a variety of sources.
Overall, I give this book 3.75 out of 5 based on the sincerity of the author to help people. It is a good basic start to weight lifting and bodybuilding. I would have appreciated, nonetheless, a better series of photographs with the various movements either with dumbbells or barbells in the start and finish positions. I feel the same about needing photographs or illustrations for the machines as well. There are a few but if this book wants to stand out as an all informative book for men (or women), it needs to remember that there are new lifters and it would have been advisable to have a full range of options with the weights. They could have been black and white to save money and illustrated by animated figures as well.
Finally, a quote I like is “Fantasies come in the form of dreams, goals or desires, but the main point is, they will always remain personal to the individual.” I think this book helps people with a starting point on their fitness journey.
“Making Sense of Mindfulness: Five Principles to Integrate Mindfulness Practice Into Your Daily Life”
Book: “Making Sense of Mindfulness: Five Principles to Integrate Mindfulness Practice Into Your Daily Life.” Keith Macpherson, Morgan James Publishing, 2018.
Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
Book Available Now.
I knew I was meant to read this book when I received it in the mail and lo and behold there was the postage reading in an angelic number. It was meant for this book to fall into my hands. It was destiny at its best. I definitely noticed the significance at once and appreciated it.
I have known Keith Macpherson on the periphery as an interested person. I had him as a yoga instructor although we had not been formally introduced. I had seen him perform with his group, Keith and Renée. Further to that, I had, as many Canadians, seen him perform on Canadian Idol but as a spectator watching TV from my living room. As well, Keith and I are both teachers with a Bachelor of Education degree.
What I find interesting about Keith is how he is able to meld his singing career, yoga and spiritual quest search altogether. He highlights that Wayne Dyer was a mentor with whom he had studied with many times in Hawaii. For me, I had been introduced to Wayne Dyer’s first book “Your Erroneous Zones” which I read in the 1970s as an avid and interested teenager. At that time Wayne was more into the psychological aspects of life and not onto the spiritual aspects quite yet. This self-help book was on the New York Bestsellers List for 64 weeks and sold over 35 million copies. If Louise Hay and Shakti Gawain are the grandmothers of spirituality, then Wayne Dyer is the grandfather of spirituality. His influence is and has been immense.
To have been in the presence of this incredibly, influential man such as Keith Macpherson has had the opportunity to learn, would have been so profound and there is evidence of this affect and effect in his book.
Keith’s book, “Making Sense of Mindfulness” bridges the information between many thought leaders that are promoted and published by Hay House. As a person, who has reviewed many spiritual and self-help books, many of which are from Hay House authors, I find Keith has found a good way to combine and glean out for you, a combined knowledge of what are the essential kernels of truth from many of these same authors. In effect, you are getting the most important aspects of spirituality found in this book.
I think one of the most important pieces of this book is the section that deals with those of us, which is most of us, who do not deal with our emotions. It is kind of a culturally learned behaviour and expectation that we do not expose and relate positively to our feelings and stuff them down into a cellular level in our bodies which causes us, as Louise Hay would say, dis-ease. It is important to acknowledge and release that which we refuse to look at in order to move on.
Keith shows you a number of mindfulness techniques. I have previously reviewed mindfulness books in the past and have also taken mindfulness classes through a variety of places having worked in Social Services and Education. He is able to highlight and delve into what is important to know and practice in your daily and moment to moment life.
I would have loved to have met and known Wayne Dyer, but with Keith Macpherson, you get the next best thing. Further, I have also taken Keith’s Mindfulness course online. He reviews 5 principles of mindfulness with online videos, meditations and exercises. You can find out about it and other valuable material at his website:https://www.keithmacpherson.ca
I would like to start to wrap up by saying that I think there is a beauty in the way Keith writes that I believe he gets from his musical background in that some quotes and passages were lyrical and musical in presentation. I felt as if he said certain things in a very meaningful and poetic way that comes from a person who has the ability to capture life by writing lyrics into songs along with melodies. The passages are melodic.
Finally, I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 and I believe that if you are stressed in any way and are not sure how to deal with it, this book is for you. Keith combines all his experience as a yoga instructor, student of Wayne Dyer and also a life coach with knowledge and actual practice with valuable insights. He offers courses, personal coaching, leadership coaching, online yoga and now offers an online community called “Mindful Tribe.”
Mary Mikawoz Creative Pursuits Blog 